Into All Truth

JOHN 16:12-13 NKJ
12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear
them now.
13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will
guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own
authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will
tell you things to come.

"Into all truth" in verse thirteen is translated "into the full
truth" or "to the complete truth" in other Bible translations.

At the very end of His earthly ministry, Jesus told His
disciples there were many things He still needed to teach them.
Then Jesus told them the Holy Spirit would guide them into a
full and complete understanding of the truth after He left.

It took me a long time to understand this. But I finally
realized that because Jesus ministered under the Old Covenant,
He was not able to communicate everything we need to know about
the New Covenant during His earthly ministry. Only after His
death and resurrection, which brought in the New Covenant, was
the Lord able, through the Holy Spirit, to explain all He had
accomplished for us.

So if we believe Jesus, we must realize it is impossible to be
led into all truth by reading and studying only the four
Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

This is not to say the four Gospels are not truth, for they
are. They are very important for they reveal Jesus to us. But
they do not, and cannot, give us the complete and full picture
of truth. For Jesus plainly said the Holy Spirit would guide
His disciples into all truth only after Jesus left them -- and
the four Gospels primarily cover the earthly ministry of Jesus.

So it is only in the Letters (also called Epistles) to the
Church (Romans through Revelation) that we finally get the
complete picture of the New Covenant and understand what Jesus
has accomplished.

Jesus did not give us the full, complete truth during His
earthly ministry. Without the revelation of what Jesus
accomplished through His death and resurrection, we don't have
the whole picture. This information was only given to us after
Jesus' resurrection, and is found only in the Letters written
to the Church.

The Letters to the Church in the New Testament are also the
words of Jesus, speaking to us from Heaven through the Holy
Spirit, and written down by His apostles.

It is right for us to honor the words of Jesus recorded in the
four Gospels, but it is a mistake to think we should place them
on a higher level than the revelation Jesus gave His church
after His resurrection.

What we have in the Epistles are not just the words of men, but
the Words of God, written down by the Apostles of Jesus. This
is where we must look to be led "into all truth" which Jesus
promised His disciples would be revealed after He left them and
sent the Holy Spirit.

If we are going to understand truth fully, we need divine
illumination. We need help from God. Human effort and study is
not enough. We need a "Guide" to lead us into all truth.

SAY THIS: The Holy Spirit will guide me into the full picture
of truth by giving me understanding of the New Testament
Letters to the Church.